Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Lord of the Rings, Galaga, and the A's

Talk about timing! A day after beating Battle for Middle Earth II on 360, EA goes and announces an expansion pack, The Rise of the Witch King. Who knows if it will make its way to the 360, but cool news still. I’m definitely hoping Command & Conquer 3 heads to consoles as well. You’d think that the chances of it happening are pretty good, although I haven’t seen any console sales figures for BfME II.

After two nights of Galaga, I landed myself in the top 100 high scores on Live. That was a few days ago, so I’m sure my rank has taken a beating by now. The leader boards and achievements have got me playing it more intensely than ever before. I hope Street Fighter plays good over Live. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow. I’m also psyched for Luminees Live, but it comes out around the same time as Ninety-Nine Nights. Interesting Q entertainment coincidence.

As for what game to settle into next, I’m leaning towards another RTS. There is a pile that I never got to like Age of Mythology, Rome Total War, Rise of Nations, and the Dawn of War expansion pack Winter Assault. Out of those, leaning towards Winter Assault, especially since videos of the second expansion have got me juiced. For sure, I’ll get Company of Heroes when it hits early September. After Dawn of War, Relic has my trust that they can make WWII interesting again for me.

There was a small window where I was craving some RPG action. At first it was going to be Elder Scrolls, then it was going to be Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, but the feeling has passed. Maybe it’ll come back when Valkyrie Profile 2 gets released or Rogue Galaxy. Most likely the game that might work some level 20 magic is Phantasy Star Universe.

Went to the A’s game on Sunday to witness the Major League debut of Shane Komine (koe-mee-ne), aka The Hawaiian Punch Out. Despite giving up a homerun on his second pitch, he settled down and delivered six strong innings, giving up only three more hits and no other runs. He would have got the win, but the game was blown in the top of the 9th.

Luckily, a three-run blast from Milton Bradley saved the day. Jubilant pic above. Shane’s next start is Tue against the hard hitting Rangers. I’ll be on the edge of my seat cheering for sure. If only my Giants would get their act together.